"It's still sort of in the early stages," Valentine told Billboard. "We definitely have a couple of amazing songs that will be on the record.

"I think we just really like making music now, and I think we're more prolific than ever. But at the same time it's going to be a while before the record comes out, so maybe some of the stuff we're doing now will fall by the wayside by the time we actually put it out.

"But we've got some great stuff started, and we're all very excited."

Discussing the sound and direction of the collection, he confessed: "I thought I had a handle on that, but it kind of keeps changing.

"There was a first batch of songs that seemed like they were darker and maybe a little more organic-sounding, but now there's some other songs that... it's hard to describe, and I think we're going to really find out where it's going in the next few months."

Maroon 5's last album Overexposed entered the top ten in 21 countries and spawned the global hits 'Payphone', 'One More Night' and 'Daylight'.